Um Dia, um Gato

"The romance between Robert and Diana has a swooning roundelay feel and Vásáryová is a gorgeous stunner in her crimson one-piece dress, whereas Brodský is an all-too hangdog nonentity that their mismatch involuntarily betrays a self-pleasing masculine fantasy. But Svatopluk Havelka's accompanying score is a lush orchestral phenomenon, WHEN THE CAT COMES is more a musical fantasy than a straight-faced parable about human nature. Plus the implementation of children as the ultimate symbol of conscience is again, an over-simplified ideal that seems more farcical than its intention in its end result.

That said, Jasný's film is a testimony of the ceaseless wellspring that generates Czechoslovak New Wave movement, the imaginings, the innovations, the forms of expression, and the pursuit of aestheticizing, which is different from other motion pictures elsewhere in the world at that time. Its mentality may sometimes err on the side of naivety and rigidity, which creates a unique situation where the overflowing creativity clashes with an ideological stasis, a fascinating geopolitical aspect of the movement."

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I first found this film on YouTube, a few months ago, by chance... Glad I did!

Have enjoyed many foreign films in past - mainly Japanese and Russian, and a few from other countries. This was the first film from Czechoslovakia I have ever watched (with English subtitles, of course). Except for the language, the people in this town could be from any small town... even from mid-1950's or early 1960's America. The everyday cares, joys & troubles, were much the same as most men, women and children have, the whole world over. But... When the Cat Comes... watch out! The cat has your (and mine) number.... A very beautiful and touching story - and the clever use of color, music, sound effects, was all quite well done. I just wished they could have screened this in school, when I was a 'wee lad'. Maybe it's high time they show good movies in the schools again! (In 1st grade, my teacher showed 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' with James Mason, in the class. I never forgot that!)

This film is from 1963, but it is a story as timely as ever. If only this cat would visit the halls of all the political leaders (in Wash. D.C., and elsewhere), things might get 'back on track'?! To bring world peace & understanding, maybe we should start by watching each other's films.... each other's STORIES. Films such as this deserve a wider audience, and I hope Criterion will add this to their list of foreign titles on DVD and Blu-ray... I would buy it again from them, gladly!

In a small town, Jan Werich is an amiable storyteller who tells the children about a fabulous cat who wear sunglasses. When his eyes are uncovered, anyone he looks at has their nature revealed by the color they turn. Up shows the cat, and raises havoc among the adults, particularly Jirí Sovák, the smarmy bureaucrat who understands everything, once it's dead.

It's one of those wobbly fantasies of the 1960s like THE SEVEN FACES OF DOCTOR LAO who attempt to exalt the honesty of children -- not that I saw much of that as a child. There are lots of special effects which nowadays look like director Vojtech Jasný and his staff got their hand on an optical printer for the first time. At the time, I'm sure this movie was pretty much state-of-the-art for Eastern Europe. It hasn't aged particularly well, but there's little doubt it will still appeal to children in its insistence that they and truth matter.

This is probably one of the best movies ever made. And it is not excellent because of the acting or the production, after all it is one example of the early czech cinema and the spring revolution. The film is important for story it tells. This is a exemplary evaluation of human behavior as observed by an estranged cat, who is only capable of watching human beings by what they really are. I have tried to get a copy of this film for decades (I watched first time as a 12-year-old kid and again in College in the early 1970s). A gem!!!

A psychedelic look at human nature and the different desires that each person in a small village have. A cat that is accompanied by a circus troupe enters a small village and exposes what each person feels by showing them in different colors of emotions. Many in this small village are selfish and self centered except for the romantic teacher. The director uses a range of colors to show the different elements of human behavior. The teacher played by Vlastimil Brodsky is a hopeless romantic that falls in love with Cassandra, a member of the performing circus.

Az Prijde Kocour/Cassandra Cat(1963) is for everyone of different age groups. The children see the cat as the bearer of truth and the giver of unlimited imagination. The adults in the village see the cat as a threat because they are fearful of that truth that sees beneath the lies. The only adult who is not threatened by the cat is the romantic teacher. The cinematography is excellent and the music is good.

Cassandra Cat(1963) is not very different from the films of Terry Gilliam especially Time Bandits(1981), and Brazil(1985). The romantic angle of Az Prijde Kocour(1963) reminds me in many ways of similar scenes in Brazil(1985). Cassandra Cat(1963) is an ageless film by one of the masters of the Czech New Wave, Vojtech Jasny. The ending of the motion picture is sad. Emilia Vasaryova is arousing and sweet natured in the role of Cassandra.